Profit Per Employee: The tech companies making the most profit per employee

 All companies, whether large or small, have many different ways of measuring their success, though many primarily look at profit and revenue. To get an even better idea of which businesses are really getting the most out of their resources, Tipalti has taken a look at which of the world’s biggest companies are generating the most profit and losses per employee, to reveal which companies are truly getting the best returns, and which sectors are hiring the most efficient employees.

The research conducted by Tipalti, reveals the companies that are generating the biggest profits and losses per employee, with technology companies such as Uber, Western Digital and CommScope Holding all losing thousands of dollars in profit per employee, while tech giants Facebook and Apple are taking home over $400,00 per employee.

The team at Tipalti analyzed data from the Fortune 500 list for some of the biggest companies in the world, and divided each company’s annual profits and revenue by their number of employees, to reveal the losses or profits, and revenue per employee.

The 2020 edition of the Fortune 500 was the 66th edition of Forbes’ annual list, with the 500 companies making up the list in 2020 representing two-thirds of the US economy and over $14.2 trillion in revenue.

When looking at the technology industry as a whole, the research found that with annual profits of $252,836 million, and 2,888,490 employees, the average earnings per employee in the technology sector was $87,532. Technology as an industry ranked second, beaten only by the earnings per employee of the financial sector, who with annual profits of a whopping $378,445 million and only a few hundred more employees at 3,256,067, have earnings per employee of $116,228.

The company that came out in top spot was the government-sponsored financial company Fannie Mae (formally known as the Federal National Mortgage Association), with an incredible $1.8 million profit for each of their 7,500 employees, with its brother organization Freddie Mac taking third spot ($1 million per employee). Fannie and Freddie Mac also topped the lists of the overall highest revenue per employee.

The profits per employee of the top 10 highest-earning technology companies in the world:

Overall Rank	Name	Profit ($M)	Employees	Profit per Employee
17	Facebook	18,485	44,942	$411,308
18	Apple	55,256	137,000	$403,328
28	Alphabet	34,343	118,899	$288,842
34	Microsoft	39,240	144,000	$272,500
50	Lam Research	2,191	10,700	$204,804
51	Nvidia	2,796	13,775	$202,976
57	Intel	21,048	110,800	$189,964
61	Booking Holdings	4,865	26,400	$184,280
66	Micron Technology	6,313	37,000	$170,622
71	Texas Instruments	5,017	29,768	$168,537

Leading the way and making an incredible $411,308 profit per employee, is social media, business, and technology giant Facebook, owned by Mark Zuckerberg. As of the first quarter of 2020, Facebook has 2.6 billion monthly active users and is therefore now the biggest social network worldwide.

Not only this but with around 92,000 employees less than second-place tech giant Apple, Facebook is able to split its $18,485 million profit quite generously, leading Facebook to be earning on average, $8,000 more profit per employee - despite earning £36,771 million less in profit.

---

The only three technology companies making losses per employee included computer hard disk drive manufacturer and data storage company Western Digital who were revealed to be making losses of -$12,20 per employee; communications technology company CommScope Holding who are making losses of -$30,983 per employee, and well-known ride-hailing company Uber Technologies, who is a shocking revelation are making huge losses of -$316,208 per employee.

The research also looked at the revenue of each company per employee, with the technology industry earning $1,463,004 million in revenue. Split across 2,888,490 employees, this worked out as $506,494 revenue per employee, ranking in seventh place overall, with the energy sector making over double that with an incredible $1,798,360 revenue per employee in first place.

The top ten technology companies earning the highest revenue per employee were:

Overall ranking	Name	Revenue ($M)	Employees	Revenue per Employee
61	Apple	260,174	137,000	$1,899,080
62	CDW	18,032	9,900	$1,821,455
70	Facebook	70,697	44,942	$1.573,072
90	Alphabet	161,857	118,899	$1,361,298
103	Broadcom	22,597	19,000	$1,189,316
122	HP	58.756	56,000	$1,049,214
150	Lam Research	9,653	10,700	$902,206
159	Microsoft	125,843	144,000	$873,910
180	eBay	10,800	13,300	$812,030
187	Nvidia	10,918	13,775	$792,595
202	Intuit	6,784	9,400	$721,702

In findings similar to that of the profit per employee analysis, Apple was found to be leading the way when it comes to highest revenue per employee. The multinational technology company, founded in 1976, was found to be making a whopping $260,174 in revenue last year, making $1,899,080 per employee.

The technology companies making the smallest revenue per employee included IT services company Cognizant Technology Solutions ($57,378 per employee) and fiber optic cable manufacturing company Amphenol ($111,154 per employee).

When it came to the technology companies with the most employees, IBM led the way, with 383,800 employees working for the company. Cognizant Technology Solutions (292,500 employees) and manufacturing services company Jabil (200,000) followed in second and third place, both with over 200,000 employees on their books.

When looking at overall revenue and profit, the same three companies topped the list: Apple, Alphabet, and Microsoft, with Dell Technologies and IBM making the top five for overall revenue, and Intel and Facebook making the top five for overall profit.

You can view all 500 companies from different industries and their profits and losses in the full report.